Inform governance
Shape the final policies, frameworks, and safety guidelines we publish.
Why Join EMD UK?
Already a Member?
News & Insights
Who we are
Work with us
As the National Governing Body (NGB) for group exercise, the focus of our work is to protect, support, and elevate the entire sector. To do this effectively, we must make sure that our initiatives, frameworks, and standards are directly informed by the people who live and breathe this industry every day.
Consultation is our way of ensuring that our members’ voices shape our decisions and our governance, creating a fair, transparent, unbiased and inclusive approach to everything we do.
Whether we are addressing critical industry benchmarks like Instructor Pay, or establishing new professional frameworks, your insights ensure our work remains relevant, impactful, and aligned with the sector’s actual needs.
We regularly go out to the sector to gather evidence, test ideas, and build consensus on industry topics, including:
We are constantly looking to refine clear boundaries and professional frameworks for emerging and established group exercise disciplines, to make sure group exercise is being delivered in a safe and qualified way.
The input we receive from group exercise instructors allows us to align our approaches with the experiences of people teaching in the industry.
Part of our role as an NGB, is to research industry-wide challenges, such as instructor pay and working conditions, and both benchmark and provide recommendations for improvements. Feedback and insight on these topics from the wider industry is always valuable.
We support external consultations to ensure training frameworks meet the evolving demands of modern fitness environments.
We gather data to champion the social and health value of group exercise to government and funding bodies and rely on the insight of instructors within the industry to add context to our findings.
We also also feed into external consultations with other organisations and give evidence as part of other consultations relevant to the sector, to make sure group exercise voices are being heard.
We don’t just consult for the sake of it. Every piece of feedback received through this process is analysed and used to:
Shape the final policies, frameworks, and safety guidelines we publish.
Represent the group exercise sector as a credible, evidence-informed voice in discussions with public health bodies, insurers, workforce partners, and policymakers. We also contribute to government consultations and calls for evidence.
Keep our resources, member benefits, and support structures aligned with your day-to-day realities.
The UK is experiencing a major surge in reformer-based exercise. While this growth is fantastic for the sector and in getting more people moving, it has blurred the lines between vastly different styles of instruction.
With this rapid expansion comes a vital responsibility: to ensure safety, clarity, and transparency for both the public and instructors, clear definitions are now required.
Over the past six months, we have worked closely with our Pilates Advisory Group – a dedicated panel of sector experts, educators, and practitioners – to address this head-on. The culmination of this collaboration is a newly drafted Fitness Reformer Scope of Practice framework.
As the sector evolves, standardising terminology is crucial to differentiate between:
Our goal is to protect the integrity and specialised training of traditional Pilates, while also recognising and supporting the skill set needed to safely deliver high-energy, fitness-reformer formats.
The Outcome
Once finalised, these Scopes of Practice will provide clear benchmarks for instructors, guide training providers, and help consumers make informed choices.
Before these are formally adopted as the industry standard, we need your insight to ensure they reflect real-world delivery.
Your expertise is critical to finalising this framework before it is formally adopted. We invite all sector professionals, instructors, operators, and training providers to review the proposal and contribute to the final standard.
Our Asks:
Key Date: This consultation will remain open until Wednesday 8th July.
Want to discuss this further? If you would prefer to talk through your insights with the team, simply tick the box at the end of the form. We will be more than happy to schedule a direct call with you to discuss your feedback in more detail.
"*" indicates required fields